LAPUSH — The Coast Guard continues to investigate Thursday’s collision between one of its motor life boats and a vessel carrying halibut derby fishermen that injured two of them.
“It may have been operator error; it may have been mechanical,” said Chief Petty Officer David Mosley, a Coast Guard spokesman, on Friday.
“That’s why we will be doing an investigation, trying to figure out the sequence of events.
“We don’t have the whole picture yet of what occurred. Once they [Coast Guard rescuers] were on scene, a collision occurred during the response.
“We want to address the situation and try to minimize any recurrence.”
The recreational vessel Nauti Cat had radioed a distress call that it had lost battery power at 8:40 a.m. Thursday while it participated in a halibut derby about 30 miles west of LaPush. Coast Guard Station Quillayute River sent a 47-foot boat to the scene.
The two vessels collided, injuring two of the seven people aboard the Nauti Cat and cracking its hull above the waterline, a Coast Guard statement said. No damage was reported to the life boat.
The Port Angeles Coast Guard air station dispatched an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter whose crew picked up the injured men and took them to Neah Bay.
They subsequently were taken to Olympic Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, Mosley said.
A state Department of Fish and Wildlife craft took the five remaining fishermen aboard and towed the Nauti Cat to LaPush.
No names of the Nauti Cat’s people or the Coast Guard responders were released.